Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	charles_n	france_n	king_n	15,695	5	4.4057	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58019	A general draught and prospect of government in Europe, and civil policy Shewing the antiquity, power, decay, of Parliaments. With other historical and political observations relating thereunto. In a letter.	Rymer, Thomas, 1641-1713.	1681 (1681)	Wing R2426; ESTC R219765	30,328	97

which they might more easily pervert to their own Arbitrary Interest and advantage If it have but the name or resemblance the people look no farther they see not into the trick and secrets of it they are led by the appearance so long till they are past recovery and no way is left them for a retreat And indeed the Emperors of the last Age ceased to deal bonâ fide the old German honesty wore out of fashion And they no longer treated on the square with their people Artifice and juggle came in place and in the days of Charles the Fifth began to get a specious appellation and be named forsooth Reason of State But more especially since the Jesuits there have refined upon the Court-sophistry and minc'd away all the old remains of Morality and Conscience for the Jesuits could the worst of all other endure these same mixt Governments They would have the Pyramid inverted and the whole stress of things rest upon one single leg that their art might play the more freely and they the more cleverly trip it down This broad-bottom'd Monarchy and Government founded on the people puts them to other measures a dose of poyson or consecrated dagger will not do the work They must here go about and about make slow approaches ripen a Plot of many years and draw a long concatenation of Intrigue ere they can think to compass their design When the Commonwealth has but one neck the Jesuit will have it under his girdle if not one blow does the feat and his dexterity is admirable Therefore in Germany the Jesuits have left no stone unturned for their part to bring all the Soveraign power from the States to the Emperor And to that end of late times the Emperor whether by their influence upon his Councels or no is not our enquiry has employed all the undue practises and set all engines a-work to render the publick Assembly useless burthensome and odious to the people On this foot care has been taken that some vexatious Tax should be the only result and conclusion of every Session Aid against the Turk was a constant perpetual pretence Money the Head of all his Proposals Money the effect and substance of all his Speeches This affair once adjusted other Debates were out of doors Grievances not then longer to be toucht upon but all adjourn'd to another Session Besides the mischievous devises to embroyl the States amongst themselves and turn all their heat upon fruitless disputes and altercations In the second place the Electoral Colledge have not been too fair in their respects to the Diet. These could be content that betwixt Caesar and themselves all the matters of State be transacted And have sometimes accordingly strecht a Text of the Golden Bull to serve a turn and collogued with him that he again might be complacent to them till that amongst them the publick patrimony and common right and Prerogatives of the Empire become engrost in a few hands and made a spoyl to their unreasonable ambition These Electors must every one under his Hand and Seal signifie their consent to the Emperor before he can summon an Assembly of the States They got to themselves the making of the Emperor And now in effect the States cannot meet without their order They were wont to be reckoned six Electors to some purposes seven now they make eight but before they fill up the number of the Roman Decemviri they will remember their fate These ten as Livy tells us having got all the Supreme Authority for a time into their hands that they might reign absolute took an Oath together never to call the Common Councel Yet their Tyranny held not long This cheat would not down with the old Romans but with a general indignation they break over the Forms and Captivity of the letter for that old Law in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to free their Country from slavery they executed an unwarranted piece of Justice upon these ten Usurpers or Ten Tarquins as some body then call'd them Lastly the States have not a little been wanting to themselves in the affair of this their so ancient and fundamental Prerogative One principal cause amongst many others has been their differences about Religion For the Protestants being sure to be out-voted in the Dyet think they can barter with Caesar for better conditions And are therefore well enough content that the yearly Assembly be neglected In a word the German Diet is still on foot rather incumberd and clogged and puzled than destroyed The Parliament of France seems quite antiquated and subdued the Ghost and shadow of the defunct has appeared three or four times since Lewis the Eleventh But to revive that Assembly in its full and perfect vigor requires a Miracle like the Resurrection So that in effect we may date the demise of the Parliamentary Soveraignty in France from Lewis the Eleventh and the decay of that in Germany from Charles the Fifth It is in England onely that the ancient generous manly Government of Europe survives and continues in its original lustre and perfection Were there not something in that saying of the Emperor Maximilian that the French King is a King of Asses yet however that same legereté on which the French so value themselves is but in plain English a lightness of humour by the which they are easily piped into a new mode of Government But our English Ancestors have always been of a more steady principle more wise and more weigh'd than to dance after their Politicks The Reformation of Religion leaves no room at our Court for Jesuitical infection so fatal to the Germans Nor on the other hand have we yet had any Swisse Guards or Lewisses for our Kings Ours have still been true English Original no Copies of the French Magna Charta instead of being superannuated renews and recovers its pristine strength and athletick vigor by the Petition of Right with our many other explanatory or declaratory Statutes And the annual Parliament is as well known to our Laws as ever it had been famous amongst the Customs of France and Germany I have not formally answered many Objectons that might be started nor much regarded the single instances of some Historians and perhaps may be judged lame in several particulars that I have slighted Take all together you may as easily find an answer as raise a scruple But the short of what I would have said is You are not to expect truth from an Historiographer Royal it may drop from their pen by chance but the general herd understand not their business they fill us with story accidental incoherent without end or side and never know the Government or policy where they write Even the Records themselves are not always accurately worded The style of the Court and a form of words imposes upon many Names are taken for things Ceremonies for Essentials The Civilians are Vassals to a For reign Jurisdiction Caesar the Sword the Military Imperial or rather